Bottom-line is, you guys will have to suck it up at the moment. The letter clearly shows they will be watching everyone. Though the threat of additional available captains is an idle one since it take 7-9 months to get one trained in Japan (maybe less with JCAB-approved Capt's but still takes time nonetheless). This is not the time to be challenging your companies, in light of the present furlough environment worldwide, though I will submit that a first contract violation usually leads to more down the road. Next qtr they may try cutting something else. When times get better, vote with your feet. Until then, lay low and realize this is not the best time to be a contract/ expat pilot; but this too shall pass... it always does.
Now... with all that said. Some genius at the airline thinks this will save them a few bucks. What they fail to realize is that they are antagonizing with the very asset managers of the airline who save the company millions on an annual basis by their actions on the job. Like it or not, pilots have more effect on the bottom-line, from an operational perspective, than any other employee group. Fostering bad-will with miscalculated intentions will only serve to alienate the asset managers (pilots) and break down their motivation. An unmotivated pilot can cause huge increases of costs over time... costs that are quite hard to specifically track. I'm not talking about predictable job slow-down actions. Those are usually quite obvious. I'm just referring to a pilot who has basically become less and less motivated over time. There are specific moments where our job requires you take extra initiative to compress any given delay. Some days your flights go smoothly and those moments don't exist. Other days you have to go that extra mile to clear up any bottlenecks. That is your job as Captain and you do it proudly. Beat down a pilot enough times and that motivation goes out the window. The flight still gets completed but if ATC or any other entity becomes an obstable, the unmotivated pilot slowly loses interest in pursuring the cause of any given delay. This amounts to lost productivity for the airline and increased costs. Over time, it is detrimental to the balance sheet and the reason why there isn't an airline in history that has survived, long-term, by beating down its employees.
I saw this when I was a CP in past career positions. And I used my knowledge of this human dynamic to attack costs issues in an entirely differnt manner. It was my job to convince upper managment to use pilots as a partner in our success and we were able to find common-ground just about every time a cost challenge presented itseldf. The pilots respect the business issues facing an airline but they equally expect the airline to do what it said it was going to do. If the business climate changes to where the airline can no longer provide that benefit, then any change should be negotiated, IMO.
I have a few buddies at SKY who told me about this contract violation last week. I advised them to "pick your battles." You can't win them all. Condsidering most other components of their contract remain in-tact, and are considerably more expensive, they would be better off waiting to see how this turns out.
In all truth, the company should be approaching the pilots with some sort of compromise. Asking the pilots to be partners in the success of the airline, rather than mere costs of the operation. We all realize most airlines will need to cut costs, and with Japan's overall industrial production numbers contracting by more than 38% Y-O-Y, airlines there are no exception. But arbitrarily changing a contract, without approval, will hurt them way more than the measly cost savings that was introduced (pilots no longer taking initiative while at work).
Regardless of my $.02, you all need to remain focused on the big picture. Don't do anything that will compromise your continued employment at this time. It is a tough environment out there in the job-search world for the next 18 mos. That doesn't mean opportunities aren't out there, but the number of pilots available for these limited number of jobs are higher now than ever in past times.
Last edited by Geebz; 30th Mar 2009 at 08:08.